Hundreds of air cadets and veterans from across the North East paraded through Durham to remember those who fought in the Battle of Britain.

It is 76 years since the Battle of Britain raged in the skies above England as the RAF fought to gain air supremacy against Hitler’s Luftwaffe and bring to an end the Fuhrer’s invasion plans.

And on Sunday the veterans and Air Training Corps cadets from across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and County Durham, formed up on Palace Green before marching into the cathedral for a special service of commemoration.

Spectators turned out in their droves to show their support and remember the 544 British and overseas air crew who died defending our nation between July 10 and October 31, 1940 – the period known as the Battle of Britain.

The annual commemoration is always held on the Sunday closest to September 15; the date Hitler is said to have realised he had lost the aerial battle for supremacy of the skies.

It was on that day that the Luftwaffe sent 1500 aircraft to rain bombs down on London.

But the young RAF pilots at the controls of their Spitfires and Hurricanes proved they were more than a match. Thanks to their heroism and skill, they fought off the German onslaught and saved London and the south east from suffering what could have been a devastating attack that would almost certainly have changed the tide of the war against us.

Among those parading yesterday was FS John David Adams, 17, from 346 (Tynemouth) Squadron ATC. It was the fifth Battle of Britain commemoration the Whitley Bay High School pupil had attended at Durham.

He said: “My grandfather joined the RAF in 1940, and while he didn’t fight in the Battle of Britain, he served in North Africa during the Desert Rats campaign, and later in Italy. He didn’t talk much about his wartime service. I think he always felt he was just doing his duty.

“But he lost many close friends, and often spoke to me about what it had been like to live through the Battle of Britain, and the mixture of personal terror and national pride in the RAF that people felt.

“He left me his medals when he died, and it is because of him I first joined the Air Training Corps and that I now want to go into the RAF myself.

He added: “It is wonderful to be able to bring veterans and young air cadets together like this, and to see the pride the Battle of Britain even now instils in people of all ages. It is a real life David and Goliath story from which we can still learn so much.”